Aamodt's Apple Orchard has been a family tradition since I was little and it has been so nice to take all our kids there the past couple of years. It's now becoming our personal Miller family tradition! The bummer this year is we went to late for u-pick apples so we were only able to walk around the grounds and get apples from the apple barn. Couldn't have been more beautiful out that day! Another tradition we do is go out to the corn maze. We had high hopes for making it out there again this year, but with freezing temps and hail we had no such luck. So we decided to hit up the local farmers market that does a decent Halloween display. Kids were able to jump in the bouncy house and crawl through the mini sized spooky house, pick out pumpkins, and act like zombies for a bit around the corn. Not what we pictured for that day but turned out to be a lot of fun and we managed to stay dry between the rain and hail. We even managed to carve pumpkins! Annual Taft/Winegar Halloween Party is becoming a fun tradition. Kids like carving their pumpkins and then voting on everyone's design!! Here's our 2013 crew on Halloween night!! Lot of candy and hot chocolate had by all. Fall is my favorite time of year! So many activities to do outside as a family, so many memories to be made!
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Trick-or-Treating was in full swing around here before it got dark! I love watching all the kids run from house to house with that look of pure delight on their faces. We had only 3 of the 4 kids for our Trick-or-Treating adventure this year. Alexis went over to a friends to have dinner and gallivant around without mom or dad. Well not really gallivanting by the sound of it, they were hardcore trick-or-treaters trying to get as much candy as possible before everyone's parents came to pick them up. I know she out did her brothers and sister! Sadly for her the out doing does her no good when she doesn't like most of the candy...good for the rest of us though. Back here at the Miller house the 3 younger kids started out strong going house to house at full speed. Kourtney and I quickly got left behind by the group and after only about a block and a half she was cold and wanted to go home to eat her candy {and eat her candy she did}. I think she ate over half her candy before the boys even got back. She just sat on the steps eating away and watching all the trick-or-treaters come to our door. Lucas lasted way longer then I expected and was keeping up with the older neighbor kids almost till the end! Best part was his Power Ranger sword lite up and you could see exactly where he was at all times! Derrick at first was upset that his older sister got to go out with her friends and he had to go with "the babies," but he quickly got over that as we gained neighbor kids in our group. He made out with a good haul and was happy in the end! We had so many kids come to the door we ended up running out of candy and had to take from the kids stash. They didn't mind because they liked giving out the candy just as much as they liked going trick-or-treating!
Since we have never lived by family and have been hopping from place to place every 2-3 years we have never had to figure out who, when, and where we would be for any given holiday. It's a whole mountain of craziness that I am not sure we are ready for. With 12 years of our own Miller traditions it's hard to just up and change all that. My family started a new tradition this year off the beaten path of the regular family required holiday's! We all got to dress up in costumes, play games, and carve pumpkins. No stress, no coordination, just go and play dress up! The kids already had their costumes but Kris and I had to go out on the hunt for a new costume duo. All of our costumes turned out great but you really don't want to know how long it takes to get everyone dressed, hair, make-up, and accessories together to look that good. The funnest part is seeing what everyone else came up with to wear! Next came the games! We did a fun relay racing game back and forth with broomsticks. Some people from the other team say my team was disqualified but Kourtney and I did all legitimate moves based on the rules, plus I had to carry Kourtney most of the way because of her stubbornness. I thought Kris was going to tackle me to the ground when I "bumped" his ball but he ended up letting us win! Pumpkin carving was just as fun! We all picked our own design and carved in teams. Kris and I had to switch around between the kids to help them get the guts out and trace their patterns but for the most part the kids did really good with it. Alexis and Derrick went at it and finished most of it on their own with a couple tips from us. Lucas dug right in but needed help with the sharp tools. Kourtney wasn't to fond of getting any of the pumpkin guts on her and constantly said, "wash hands, wash hands." Little Jack didn't get into the pumpkin carving either but was thoroughly entertained by Uncle Nick laughing it up and entertaining the adults at the same time! In the end, Alexis's spooky spider design won the carving contest; the winner got CANDY of course! The whole day was wonderful, filled with a competitive spirit and TONS of laughs! |